How about North American TEFL bores.com? People are way too serious about themselves on this site.Just face it you/we are (relative) slackers.Working in a coal mine is hard.Working on a trading floor is hard.Being a doctor is hard.Teaching the present simple to a class of students ,who generally think you're great, is not hard (and nor is all the other stuff we have to do as teachers).Teachers seem to be obsessed with words like 'ethics' , 'professionalism'and'career' and 'backpacker vs teacher' confrontations.Didn't you all get into this to have a job that you enjoyed,to have some fun,travel a bit and have adventures?If your answer to that question is 'yes',then try to focus on the good things that ELT gives you and don't waste your time pondering the imponderables.So what if Jon is a backpacker,Jane doesn't have an M.A.,Dwight(American) thinks that adjectival phrases are important and bnix has no humour.At the end of the day,choosing to leave your homeland and saying 'adios' to everyone, is a pretty selfish thing to do. So lighten up ,continue worrying about yourselves and celebrate the adventures you have.Don't piss other people off by bothering them in the work place and criticising them,just because they think differently, do things differentlyor don't conform to your set of value judgements.There seems to be a complete lack of humour,irony or sarcasm on this website.... just angst and insecurity.

Generally, I think you're right in that there's not much light-heartedness going around, but recently Kent & Johnslat have been making an effort!

Actually, everyone's bored of the whole "degree" thing, and we did "dating students" to death too. I think the end conclusion on the "professionalism" thing did OK - in short, there's not much more for the Dave's ESL people to row about.

Actually, I agree with much of what you've said, although I do think there is quite a bit of good humour on this forum already.

You are also correct that we shouldn't take ourselves or our posts on Dave's all too seriously. As Teecher eloquently pointed out yesterday on a different thread, "What difference will it all make in a hundred years?"

Having said that, I feel I also need to say this: With all due respect, it seems to me that the majority of your 68 posts on this forum are rather antagonistic and mean-spirited in nature.

Why should you be telling us to lighten up? I don't get it. I'm so "light" I'm floating over my chair as I write this little ditty.

well I agree with most of what is written. But why do some people in here think you need a Masters degree to teach English? Selfish for leaving my country? Most people everywhere are selfish. Could some one pass me a margarita.
M.

Dear keNt et al,
That word you used - " meanspirited " - sums it up nicely, I think. Not knowing any of the other posters on this board personally, I can't comment on them. But the meanspirited people I have known personally have shared some characteristics: 1. they were unhappy people, unhappy, first, with themselves and then with almost all others; 2. they were consistently negative, always looking for and joyfully finding the worst and never seeing the good; 3. they seemed to delight in tearing down others, perhaps thinking that in doing so they were building themselves up; 4. they appeared to have very high opinions of themselves, but underneath all their bluster, they were very insecure people, afraid of so much. They used to make me angry, but not any more - now the only emotion I feel for them is commiseration. Poor devils - they have to live with themselves.
Regards,
John

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2003 10:31 am Post subject: A new name or a new mindset??

Hello fellow teflers

I think the orginal post had a point but telling each other our shortcomings in what sounded like an aggressive manner is not going to change anything if anything it will make it worse . Having said that too many people take them selves a little bit too seriously myself included but maybe thats a good thing we are after all in a serious business and at the same time we are Ambassadors of our pwn country and culture is that something to be flippant about or does that sound too---serious?
I think that the spirit of the first post was to suggest we need to lighten up and try and see things on the bright side I thought the thread about dating went on for a bit but it changed the usual stuffy tone of some recent posts at the end of the day Dave's is something that should be well used and is by lots of different people for different reasons I get a lot of private replies to my posts and if I can help people who are looking to my location as a place to live/work then Dave's site has played a major part in that process,if people want to use the site to slag off others and generally be negative about most things ,thats their choice .

I am surprised that anyone takes anything posted here seriously. It is all (I hope) a pose, a pretense. I do it because 35 years is an efl long time.
That is how long I have been at this "Great Game". If I had taken my job half as seriously as some of the posters take this forum, I would have gone stark staring mad by now.

Excuse me, I have just noted a piece of the office carpet that I have not yet had a chew at.

Last edited by scot47 on Mon Apr 21, 2003 11:27 am; edited 1 time in total

Just a quick thought. I like this forum and the China board (whereI now work.) They are civil and most of the time relevant. And you get helpful comments on any issues you are having which is really the point. If I was to slam a forum I would head over to the Korea side. I lived there for 20 months and couldn't stand reading it. It reminds me of one of those screeching talk radio shows at home. And half of the posts are "trolls." "Why do Koreans hate us?" Why are Canadians greedy." "Why are teachers losers here." On and on and on. I will take this forum anyday.

HELLO ITSLATE, I am with M's margarita theory on this one.Keep passing them, and anything becomes not only ponderable...it even starts to become plausible!!! Dont be mad at the world because you are a slack backpacker with no M.A. Try margarita therapy. Selfish to leave my country! Tell that to the bloke who snapped up my very desirable paycheque and benefits package , so I could come to China to be a "slacker". Thats just not in my blood baby. Probably no room because of the tequila. Bye for now

"Doors"...I really do not think Dave is going to change the name of the forum to humor you. Just because you do not take YOURSelf seriously(none of us do,either) does not mean some people do not take this business seriously.Is that BAD?And doors;'what do you suggest as an alternative?...jokes about "turds"?

Get a life,wake up and smell the coffee.Virtually every post I've made on the general forum has been a piss take.A group of us at work take great delight in laughing at the sanctimonious,tosh that comes out of some of you,especially in response to some of my more ludicrous posts,(teaching montagnards in Laos...etc). This 'slack unqualified backpacker',(what an assumption), earns $75,000 a year in the Middle East and has no private lessons.I don't know if you've applied for any jobs out here but you need to be well qualified and have lots of experience to get that kind of money.Some of you are simply unbelievable.'Mean spirited and unhappy"...what a joke my life couldn't be better...I think I'll just go to the pool with my super model wife... then have a margerita.....then spend a few hundred quid on the gee gees.

Dear itslatedoors.
" A group of us at work take great delight in laughing at the sanctimonious,tosh that comes out of some of you . . "
And you said we weren't funny. Fibbing again, huh? Sounds like you've got an idyllic life there - so idyllic, in fact, it's hard to see why you need to come to Dave's searching for levity and amusement. Surely, with all the diversions so readily available there, Dave's offers pretty poor competition.
Regards,
John